Referees are on a bonus for the number of yellow cards they dish out.
That is the sensational claim from former Premier League referee Mark Halsey who says officials get end-of-season evaluations based on how many times they have booked players.
Halsey, in an interview with Nubaid Haroon who has a hit YouTube channel and is RamboFYI on Instagram, believes refs are handing out too many yellow cards and says they are under extraordinary pressure to book players.
Halsey said: "Remember... where you finish on the merit list, you get a bonus at the end of the season. So, if you continually get evaluations saying they're not cautioning enough, then what are they going to do?
"We see far too many cautions. Too many cautions for nothing. A free-kick should be for a careless challenge, nothing else. A reckless challenge is a yellow card and a dangerous challenge endangering a player's safety must be sanctioned with a red card.
"We don't have assessors in the Premier League. They just have an evaluation. There's no contact with a referee after a game."
Halsey says that the likes of himself, Mark Clattenburg and Howard Webb are no longer involved in the Professional Game Match Officials Board because their faces do not fit.
But Halsey insists that standards have slipped in the current generation of top-flight referees.
He added: "It hurts me to say that, refereeing standards have been in decline for a number of years. I don't necessarily blame the referees. It's the leadership and direction from the PGMOL management.
"We've got guys coaching them who have never refereed at the top level. We've got guys in charge of coaching who have never refereed."
